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Peace is not compared to its opposite, nor is it about considering philosophical or religious meaning, or authoritarianism and its modes of expression, nor to outline possibilities in the future.
It is about favouring a reading that allows the importance of the concreteness of work to emerge, of solidarity and tolerance, as well as of doubt and of...

In this new era of disorientation and social hardship it isn’t pure formalism to rethink utopia as a type of search, anticipation and projection into the realm of future possibilities. In Boundaries Utopia promotes divergent thinking. It stimulates forward momentum, not to just a future, but to all possible futures.
English edition.

What is do-it-yourself architecture? Self-building is a challenge not only in terms of material, economic, regulatory and bureaucratic difficulties, it is a challenge to oneself. It requires the desire and the ability to recognize one's own limits, to overcome one's own prejudices, to put aside one's own ego in favour of the ability to listen to the needs...

To face an emergency means to deal with problems of a different nature, some requiring immediateness, whilst others needing longer subsidence times. Sometimes it is a matter of providing housing to those who have lost theirs, other times it is a matter of safeguarding human dignity, without forgetting the importance of the memory of places».
English edition.

In 2014, for the first time since the end of World War II, the number of refugees exceeds fifty million people in total. In such challenging conditions, in which the needs exceed the capacity of NGO and international organizations to provide help and support, what can architecture do? Maybe a lot, it depends on your vision of what architecture as a...

This volume explores the architecture of places of education, with particular attention to the most disadvantaged areas and communities.
Education is, par excellence, the instrument that promotes collective social progress, makes individuals and communities stronger, provides an ability to overcome disasters by responding positively, avoiding the easy...

This volume explores architecture and work dedicated to improving the health and living conditions of disadvantaged populations and groups affected by disaster or war.
The health crises that we witness on the horizon today cannot be tackled successfully unless we first solve the political problems that are the cause behind so much inequalities.

This volume explores architecture and work committed to fostering cultures.How to return to a cultural dimension where dialogue and differences regain that core value of mutual growth, which has proven, time and again, throughout history, to be a natural antidote against intolerance and totalitarianism?

The border in Boundaries has nothing to do with the political frontier; it is that line that the imagination continuously moves a bit further beyond the horizon, that pushes us to set forth, that speaks about invention, about discovery. It has nothing to do with the idea of limit; it is rather an invitation: it is the line that divides only to join together, that enhances the differences so that it may be possible to set up a true dialogue.

Boundaries is a review founded and directed by young researchers, architects, urban planners, designers, historians and geographers from all over the world: together we link four continents. Our hope is to reach the most different points of view, not to reconcile the opposites, but to enhance them as a value, to enrich the dialogue

A hint to the structure of the journal: every issue will address a monographic theme, around which the topics of the articles will be focused. The section “Ideas” proposes some food for thought, crossing different disciplines. The section “That was the year...” will address the history of the 20th Century and will always be present: it will focus each time on a different event that has been particularly important, an achievement that must not be forgotten because it still constitutes an important lesson.

Boundaries is a quarterly magazine on sustainable, socially engaged and humanitarian architecture. Each issue is monographic, with full texts in English and Italian (facing), and all articles are accompanied by notes and a bibliography for further reading. ISSN 2239-0332.

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John Hill @Archidose05/11/2015

an ambitious goal

Boundaries is a quarterly architecture magazine that presents the buildings and projects that other magazines aren't always willing to include in their pages. Sure, the occasional project in Africa makes its way into Architectural Record or Architect, but those projects (many designed by US firms for the continent) only scratch the surface on what architects are doing in places without the resources of North America or Europe. Luca Sampo's insatiable appetite for almost single-handedly presenting architecture that is socially responsible, but also beautiful, continues with these recent issues on "Architecture for Emergencies II" (the first installment on that theme is the second issue of Boundaries) and "Humanitarian Architecture." The former presents designs for refugee camps, disaster housing, mobile health clinics, schools, collective housing, and playgrounds. Like other Boundaries issues, the projects are balanced by research, positions, interviews, and books on the topic.

Given the consistent format of the magazine, the same can be said for the latter issue on humanitarian architecture, which could surely encompass architecture for emergencies, but focuses on projects run with NGOs and other organizations and often realized by volunteers. Most of the projects are schools, clinics and community centers, pointing to the importance of these institutions and the need to create places for the people who cannot build at this scale for themselves. Right before writing about these two issues, the newest Boundaries landed in my mailbox, a good sign that Sampo isn't letting up with his ambitious goal to present some of the most commendable architecture being produced today.